Stay Away From These Foods if You Suffer From Constant Heartburn

Put down the Tums.

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We’ve all lay down in bed at night and instantly regretted the food choices of the day. That burning feeling in your chest kicks in and it seems like your heart is on fire. It seems like it’ll never pass and you grab the tums and start chewing those bad boys like candy. Heartburn isn’t all about what you eat, but food is a big part of it. Certain foods can be triggers, so here are the ones that are really gonna get you bad. If you suffer from constant heartburn, these foods and drinks may be the reason why.

1. Coffee

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Coffee seems to be on most lists of things to stay away from, which is a shame. However, if you hate the feeling of heartburn and you tend to drink multiple cups of coffee a day, this may be the reason. The caffeine combined with the acidity of coffee makes for a bad case of heartburn.

2. Tomato

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Again, because of the acidity, tomato can be a trigger for heartburn. Although healthy for you, it’s not great to eat too many tomatoes especially if the rest of your diet is also highly acidic. This also includes tomato products such as ketchup, tomato sauce, and pizza. You probably eat more tomatoes than you actually realize.

3. Alcohol

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Alcohol is also one of those things that seems to make it onto a lot of “don’t” lists. But come on, we all know it’s not great for us. Chances are you won’t cut out drinking after reading this but if heartburn really bothers you, maybe you should cut down. Alcohol is a trigger because it irritates the stomach as it goes down, but you probably know that already.

4. Citrus

Photo by Sarah Silbiger

Citrus is very acidic and one way that causes heartburn is by activating pepsin in the stomach. Pepsin is an enzyme that breaks down proteins and as acidic foods enter the stomach, they come into contact with the inactive pepsin and activate it.

5. Spicy Foods

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Those spicy foods might burn your mouth going down but they’re gonna burn all over again when the heartburn kicks in. This is probably the most well known and common cause of heartburn and one you’ve probably experienced before if you’re into spicy dishes.

6. Fatty Foods

Jenny Georgieva

Heartburn is caused by stomach acids coming back up into the esophagus. Fatty foods take longer for the body to digest so they sit in your stomach for longer than usual. This makes it easier for the acids to flow out of the stomach and therefore cause a higher risk of heartburn.

7. Peppermint

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An after-dinner peppermint might not be the best idea if you’re trying to prevent heartburn. The peppermint will relax your sphincter which is the gateway between your esophagus and stomach. This makes it easy for stomach acids to make their way into the esophagus which can cause heartburn.

8. Chocolate

Photo by Jocelyn Hsu

There are three reasons why chocolate causes heartburn, so there’s really no getting around this one. For one, caffeine causes heartburn which is why coffee is on this list. Additionally, cocoa itself causes heartburn and chocolate is high in fat, meaning it stays in your stomach longer like other fatty foods. If you don;t plan on cutting out chocolate, at least try and control how much you eat and how quickly you eat it.